By now, perhaps you are coming along well with the exercises. But you may wonder how on earth do you apply technique to soloing? This is a difficult question and is similar to the equally difficult question, "How do you play lead"? There are no strict answers to these types of questions. Some people prefer to learn a handful of riffs, and then their playing becomes dominated by their riffs. I prefer to view solos like vocal sections. Whether it is a solo, or a melody, I feel that something is always being communicated, and what better way to communicate than treating your guitar like a voice. So when I write solos, they usually are inspired by a melody and are dominated by the melody. A solo may have several main parts, and technique comes into the picture when I try to connect the parts meaningfully.

The exercises that follow show riffs from a few songs I recorded (some in dire need of a re-recording!). In the included audio files, you will notice that you don't hear the riff until several seconds after you start playing the file. I did this so that you can hear the musical context of the riff (i.e. what led up to it).

As I have said many times before, I can't get enough of wide intervals in my lead playing. I especially like using wide intervals to take a lead section through a harmonically interesting progression. In this example, I use a series of ascending and descending lines which lead logically to an ascending scalar run to finish things off.

This is quite an involved lick that uses a variety of techniques. Most importantly, the first 2 measures are played entitrely with the left hand - purely hammer-ons and pull-offs. The way I play these types of licks is I reach my picking hand over my fretting hand and I enclose my hand around the neck to mute the strings (necessary to play these legato lines cleanly). This will feel very awkward at first. But after a while, you will appreciate how amazingly fluid you can play using this technique.

The rhythmic feel of this lick is also very important. As you listen to the audio, note where the downbeats are taking place and be sure that you capture the rhythmic feel that you hear.

As if the first 2 measures won't keep you busy enough, the last measure features a scalar run which requires some serious alternate picking chops. Again, note the rhythmic feel of this lick. I tried to capture that feel in the tab, but as always, I had a hard time tabbing the part. I think for the most part it is accurate enough to get the point across.